Why Christensen thinks it’s a good time for innovation

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Sure, the economy’s bad. But it’s a good time to innovate, according to Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor who focuses on innovation. Our interview with Christensen is featured in the new edition of Business Insight.

Clayton Christensen is an expert on disruptive innovation, a professor at Harvard Business School -- and, apparently, an optimist. In the new edition of Business Insight, our collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, Christensen explains why economic downturns are good times to innovate. Christensen points out that most innnovations need adjustment before they're successful. And, in good economic times, would-be innovators can waste a lot of resources before they make the adjustments to their strategy that are needed to succeed in the marketplace, Christensen argues. Not so in tougher economic times. As Christensen put it:

In an environment where you’ve got to push innovations out the door fast and keep the cost of innovation low, the probability that you’ll be successful is actually much higher.